WILKES-BARRE TWP. - When the news broke last Monday night, it shot through professional hockey's small world as fast as a bulletin can travel.

Dallas center Rich Peverley, a 31-year-old in seemingly prime physical condition, collapsed on the bench during a game against Columbus. It took oxygen, chest compressions, a shock from a defibrillator and the quick action of medical personnel to save his life.

"It's scary, for sure," said Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins winger Spencer Machacek, who played with Peverley briefly in Atlanta in 2010-11 and saw him at a wedding last summer. "It makes you realize how fortunate you are. I'm pulling for Pev. It's nice to see he's recovering.

"Hopefully he can get back on the ice. This is what we do. It's our job, but it's what we love to do. It's unfortunate when things stop you from playing, but the main thing is his health, obviously. That's the most important thing."

If the Penguins needed a reminder of how the real world of a serious medical situation can intrude on the fantastical world of pro sports, they didn't need to look as far as Dallas. They could have looked to the north end of the Mohegan Sun Arena.

That's where a banner honoring Darcy Robinson hangs. Robinson, a popular defenseman for the Penguins from 2001-05, suffered what doctors called sudden cardiac death at age 26 during a 2007 game in Italy. The team's program that encourages literacy in school children, Robo's Readers, is named in his honor.

If there's one man in the Penguins locker room who didn't need any reminder, it was athletic trainer Kyle Moore. He didn't just learn what to do in case of a serious medical emergency in school. He practices an action plan on a regular basis.

"We rehearse a minimum of two times a year with our emergency medical staff and our physicians how to treat situations like the Peverley situation and how to handle any situation that could arise," Moore said. "It's a rehearsed thing based off a chain of command and a step-by-step process of who does what when. It's definitely something we prepare for."

Peverley's situation went as well as it could have largely because NHL players have quick access to a defibrillator and a doctor when they're on the bench or on the ice. The Penguins have that too.

They have a general practitioner and an orthopedic doctor at every home game in the regular season and all games in the playoffs. For regular-season road games, the home team provides a doctor.

"At every game event, there is an attending physician, by all means," Moore said.

As far a defibrillator goes, Moore never leaves home without his.

"It's always in my hotel room on the road. It's always on the bench for any practice or game," he said. "The EMS has one for any game. Our game rink has them. Same thing at Coal Street. AEDs are pretty much everywhere. I know where one is at all times."

Ultimately, hockey teams hope to avoid emergency situations by giving players thorough medical screenings in the preseason. It's not a perfect process - Robinson never failed a preseason physical in his pro career - but it sometimes catches problems before they become life threatening.

"That's why it's there," Moore said. "You have a cardiology part of your screening at the beginning of the year. You take everything into account - a player's family medical history, the player's history, everything. If there's anything that's a red flag, you activate the process and dig a little deeper and see what's going on."

From Peverley's heart problem to Tomas Vokoun's blood clot and Kris Letang's stroke in Pittsburgh, this season has shown dramatically that hockey trainers do much more than treat twisted ankles or pulled groins.

"That's one of the things about this profession. You always have to be on your toes," Moore said. "You never know what's going to happen the next day. It could be one of your players going down with something serious. It could be a fan going down with something serious and you can help them out."

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